Financing trial run is a sham

By John T. Sullivan Jr., Commentary

Published 4:53 pm, Wednesday, April 9, 2014

What's good for the goose is good for the gande; or is it? The non-brilliance of Albany's governing cabal was on full display recently, with the compromise concoction of an experimental one-year program of public financing, affecting only state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli. Imagine if the shoe were on the other foot and Gov. Andrew Cuomo's current re-election campaign were to be tossed into the experimental hopper as well.

Under the proposed pilot program, the comptroller, who has already given up the pay-to-play culture that was rampant during the Alan Hevesi years, would have to give up 70 percent of his hard-earned accumulated clean campaign cash of $2.1 million, and face challengers who would be publicly funded by 6-to-1 matching contributions from the public war chest. This would be coupled with a looser definition of what family members can give (which we should call the millionaire's exemption to the law).

A more perfect plan for political hari-kari could not have been devised. Not only is Comptroller DiNapoli supposed to fall on his sword in the interest of advancing the "fair elections" platform, he is supposed to swallow it, too.

Imagine for a moment if the same experiment were to apply to Governor Cuomo. Imagine If he had to give up 70 percent of his accumulated, fat-cat-generated mound of $33 million. Reducing his campaign war mound to rubble, he would be minus more than $23 million and become vulnerable to a publicly funded Rob Astorino-type challenger. Fat chance. If you think our governor would let that happen, you must be a believer in Tinkerbell and the tooth fairy.

It is absolutely inconceivable the governor would allow himself to become the subject of such a grand experiment, no matter how much he professes to support it. Why should Mr. DiNapoli be any different?

Let's face it: Power is addictive. Money as a means to power can become a politician's crack. Does Governor Cuomo really want to abandon his own Midas touch? It would appear it is easier to abandon his progressive principles than give up a status quo pay-to-play system at which he is a masterful player. He can pay lip service to reform and dangle the continued possibilities before the progressive protagonists because he believes, as long as he is calling the shots, all will be well.

For this governor, tinkering at the edges of property tax problems and creating Potemkin villages of potential prosperity has become his modus operandi.

As long as the cash keeps flowing, and he continues to be the 800-pound gorilla in the fundraising world, why change anything? Feed the progressives crumbs and season their polenta, hoping that will shut them up.

This governor is clever and talented. He can move mountains when he wants to. Marriage equality and the NY SAFE Act are two examples. But It will take a volcaniclike eruption from the progressives and populists to get this governor to sit up and pay attention. Is there a Mount Vesuvius on the horizon? We shall soon find out.

As for Mr. DiNapoli, let him be the guinea pig, thinks the governor. He has earned the right to self-immolate, daring as he does, to question the munificence and efficiency of the current regime.

Fortunately for him, Mr. DiNapoli has said he will have none of this, and is not going to participate in an experiment that seems doomed to failure. More power to him for that, and less power to the governor for concocting this crazy scheme.